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By Ben Farmer The escalating Ebola virus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could last for months, health officials have warned, with a vaccine still some way off. Scientists say a rare strain of the deadly haemorrhagic fever had been spreading undetected for weeks before a growing outbreak…
By Isabella Egerton Western governments and NATO allies remain dangerously exposed because cyber security, counter-drone operations and missile defence are still being treated separately, despite modern warfare increasingly merging all three domains, a new report has warned. The report, entitled Converging Defences, argues that the war in Ukraine and the ongoing…
By Andre Pienaar A pattern has taken shape on the streets of north-west London that British counter-terrorism policing can no longer describe as opportunistic antisemitism. In the space of roughly five weeks, synagogues, Jewish charities, a Jewish emergency medical service, Iranian dissident media, and the perimeter of the Israeli Embassy…
Iran and North Korea are using artificial intelligence to avoid sanctions allowing hostile states to run complex financing schemes with little human involvement, according to a new report by the Royal United Services Institute. The report called, Algorithms of Evasion: The Rise of AI-Enabled Proliferation Financing, says countries under sanction…
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly contemplating a deal that could see the release of Hamas’ top terrorist chief, Yahya Sinwar, who plotted the savage 07 October attacks on Israel. The deal would involve freeing him in exchange for the release of all remaining hostages held by Hamas. Sinwar, who has led the political wing of Hamas in Gaza since 2017, has a notorious history of orchestrating attacks on Israel and served 22 years in prison before being released in a 2011 prisoner exchange. The Israeli government initially said Sinwar and Mohammed Deif, head of Hamas’ military wing must…
The United States and Britain have carried out strikes against targets linked to Houthis in Yemen. It’s the first time strikes have been launched against the Iran-backed group since it started targeting international shipping in the Red Sea late last year. An international alliance is backing the action, with a joint statement by the governments of Australia; Bahrain; Belgium; Canada; Denmark; Germany; Italy; Japan; Netherlands; New Zealand; Republic of Korea; Singapore; United Kingdom; and United States. It said, “Let our message now be clear: we call for the immediate end of these illegal attacks and release of unlawfully detained vessels and crews. The Houthis will…
The CIA assassination of Major General Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s notorious Quds Force, in a drone attack in 2020 was designed to send a message to Iran’s most powerful leaders. Washington wanted Tehran’s ruling elite – those religious leaders and military chiefs responsible for exporting Shia terrorism around the Middle East and across the world – to understand that for them nowhere was safe. Soleimani’s death was public, dramatic and sent shockwaves across the Islamic republic. Within minutes of his demise, the attack, and what was left of Soleimani’s shredded body, was being broadcast around the world on TV…
President Biden on Friday at 1:30 pm ET will oversee the transfer of the bodies of three American service members who lost their lives in a drone attack carried out by Iran-backed militants last Sunday at an air base in Jordan. The killings mark the first time that US military personnel lives have been lost in the region since the 07 October Hamas attacks on Israel. The bodies of William Jerome Rivers, 46; Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, and Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23 will arrive at an air force base in Dover, Delaware, where they will be received with military honours.…
The past year’s wars in the Middle East have long been complex and devastating, shaped by a multitude of factors. In recent years, a new player has emerged on the battlefield: artificial intelligence (AI). AI’s role in these conflicts is multifaceted, offering both potential benefits and risks that deserve careful consideration. National security relevant AI systems broadly fall into two categories: upstream tasks, such as intelligence, surveillance, and information management; and downstream tasks, such as target selection and engagement. On the Offensive Side Over the past few years, the world has seen an ever-growing AI arms race, as countries and…
The past will not tell you what is about to happen but it can point you in the right direction of what you might expect to unfold, and yet we in the West are so wrapped up in the day-to-day business of getting by, politics, making money, and social interactions we fail to learn from our immediate and distant past. So while I would not recommend attempting to drive your geopolitical car by merely looking in the rear view mirror, that mirror does deserve a little more attention. Russia is such a case. The litany of illegal, inappropriate, and indifferent…
State-sponsored computer hackers are weaponising artificial intelligence to launch cyberattacks against western militaries, governments, and private companies, according to a leading industry chief. Potential targets will need to adopt a form of collective cyber defence to protect themselves from sophisticated attacks by Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, the head of one cybersecurity company has said. In an interview with National Security News, Linda Zecher, the Chief Executive Officer of IronNet, a leading cyber security company, said that “bad actors” were now using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in cyber warfare as part of an attempt to disrupt…
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday met with 26 representatives of 18 families in Jerusalem who have family members still held captive in Gaza. US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, announced on Wednesday a robust initiative for a second hostage deal, aiming for an extended ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. Addressing the UN Security Council in New York, she said, “Hamas now has a choice to make”. “It can continue to dig tunnels, to plan for its next attack, to use civilians and civilian infrastructure as human shields, or Hamas can lay down its weapons and accept the…
Iran has secretly supplied Sudan’s armed forces with combat drones in a new intervention which risks further destabilising the region. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) has been equipped with the Mohajer-6, a single-engine unmanned aircraft which can carry up to four air-to-surface missiles and surveillance equipment. The drone is manufactured in Iran by Quds Air Industries and is already believed to have been used in several battles in the Sudanese conflict. Iran’s intervention in the nine-month conflict on the side of the country’s armed forces is linked to Tehran’s desire to increase its influence over the crucial Red Sea area. …
In late 2023, Google announced that its AI large language model, named Bard, will be restricted from answering election-related and many other politically-focussed questions in the run up to the 2024 US elections. Google’s announcement coincided with the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre’s annual report, which alerted that AI poses a significant threat to democracy. Whereas a few weeks ago, Bard would answer all political questions, even those relating to US politics, Bard now says, “Elections are a complex topic with fast-changing information. To make sure you have the latest and most accurate information, try Google Search.” Google said, “We…
Chinese authorities are reportedly exerting pressure on Iran to curb the persistent attacks of Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists, who have been carrying out strikes on commercial vessels in the Red Sea, or risk harming business relations with Beijing. Discussions on the attacks by the Yemeni group and their impact on trade have been a recurrent theme in recent meetings between Chinese and Iranian officials. China, being Iran’s primary trade partner for the past decade, holds significant economic ties with the country, and according to trade analytics firm Kpler, purchased over 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports last year, whereas Iranian oil,…
Iran has a unique power structure with the control of the country resting in the hands of the state’s supreme leader. The other major power broker is the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps – widely regarded as a terrorist organisation. National Security News set out how Iran is run and by whom. Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei At the top of Iran’s power structure is the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who succeeded Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the father of the Iranian Revolution, upon his death in 1989. Khomeini and Khamenei are the only two men to have held the office since…
